The present application relates to a device having a substantially regular array of microscopic structures on a substrate and a method of making such an array. The application relates particularly, but not exclusively, to formation of nanometer sized wire-like structures on a substrate.
Patterned surface structures on articles have applications in the fabrication of various devices, for example data storage media, microelectronic and micro-electromechanical devices, sensors, optoelectronic display devices, and other optical and optoelectronic components such as optical components for directing atomic beams, as well as applications in tissue engineering and for cell adhesion or non-adhesion, or for guiding motion or growth of cells, liquids or molecules, or in molecular scale filters. Known patterning processes involve optical lithography processes or direct-write patterning techniques such as electron beam lithography and scanning probe methods.
However, optical lithography processes suffer from the drawback that they are of limited resolution, and direct-write patterning techniques, although capable of achieving higher lateral resolution than optical lithography, are impracticable for use in mass production applications because the serial nature of the surface modification process is inherently slow. Also, when applied to larger areas of material, for example more than a few square centimeters, such processes suffer poor large scale dimensional accuracy, and in the case of patterning formed by step and scan techniques, poor registration between separate write operations and scanned regions is achieved.